The DepressionEra Duet
by Puck -X
Summary: They were England's Bonnie and Clyde. She promised to be with him forever, and he promised her to never leave her. So they stayed together, even to the end. A radically different HGRW! Set in post Hogwarts-Era
1. Depression Era Duet

**Author's Note:**

This is my first Ron/Hermione fic EVER! I don't usually support this ship, yet a found a terrific plot I just had to use. And well, somehow the story was just _there_, in my head. I have to write it down or I'll obsess about it for ages.

It's my version of Bonnie and Clyde in a post Hogwarts era. The whole story was just so, _so_ perfect. I'm sorry everyone.

My fave ship is still Hermione/Severus.

This story is not going to be especially long. About seven chapters or so…. It all depends on the public….

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**The Depression-Era Duet.**

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_Summary:_

Hermione and Ronald were meant for each other. And they clung to each other while they fought back against the elements. These elements were destitution and a government they took for its face value. They were children of a nationwide economic depression that not unlike France in the late 1700s had its upheavals -- and those who tried to keep small the size and impact of the upheavals. Not your average HG/RW story! Set in the Post-Hogwarts Era.

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_**Introduction. **_

There was a huge, enormous poster hanging from the facade of the Gringrotts bank. It was a warning sign, and the words 'WANTED' were printed on it, in big, fat red letters. It was a rather happy, sunny picture, with a blue sky and a refreshing green forest in the background. The huge sign attracted people's attention and everyone stopped walking as they saw it and observed the photograph in front of them.

It represented a young woman in a red dress, a dress that showed her figure and had a slit of the right side, showing off a rather flirty ribbon that held a rather dangerous looking gun on her thigh. Her hair was curling and slithering down her shoulders down to her arms. They were in odd cork-screw rastas, shining in a rich dark brown colour. Her face was flawless and creamy with the exception of a fling of freckles on her nose and cheeks. Her eyes were carefully rimmed with mascara and brown eyeliner, making her eyes sparkly, malicious and huge. Her lips were the same colour as her dress, they were shining glossily and it reminded one of the shiny, lean, firm skin of a cherry.

Her arms were bare, with ribbons intertwining on her legs and arms, hanging loose and fluttering in the picture. Her feet were bare, with golden toe-nails. A single golden star hang from her neck, attached to a black leather string. Her arms were joined in front of her and she held a gun, pointing it directly at you. Sometimes her lips outstretched into a smile, flashing a row of perfectly white teeth. She looked dangerous, yet very pretty. But you couldn't fail to notice the two bands she had around her left hand ring finger. Such a pretty girl had to be married.

Next to her was a very, very tall man. His hair was red, half long, and slightly curly as well; it hung down to his shoulders. Once in a while, he would pass his hand through his hair, trying to get it to stay behind his ears. The first thing you noticed in his face was the incalculable number of freckles and the scar that started from his right eyebrow and continued down to his chin. The scar was perfectly vertical, making a straight line. He grinned crookedly because of that scar. It was literally a broken smile. His eyes were blue, the same blue as the brightest, happiest summer skies.

He wore a loose ripped man's shirt and a pair of faded pants, in some odd, old looking fabric. They had been black, but now they were grey if anything. He also wore a pair of brown boots, perfectly shining and clean yet very worn. The only jewellery he wore was a wedding band on his left hand and a broken handcuff. He had a wand in his hand, which twirled between his fingers once in a while. His back was against the girl's and each time the rings would gleam on her hand, you saw him smile happily. When he shifted his position you could see a large leather band across his chest, and on this band was attached a set of knifes.

They smiled to each other and pointed their mutual arms menacingly down at people. They were the two most notorious rebels and thieves in the whole United Kingdom's wizarding world. They were the Bonnie and Clyde of the Post-Second War against Voldemort. They were the newest fugitives on the road.

The people who saw the poster couldn't help but smile whilst cowering. They were so sweet, yet quite vicious as well. They didn't kill, but hexed nastily those who stand in their way. Yet no one could really blame them for what they did; they needed money to live.

Everyone did. And finding money after the second war was easy, yet totally pointless. The inflation had made the Galleon worth as good as nothing. You needed more than just money to survive: you needed gold, muggle money, gems, expensive objects, _magic_. Food was difficult to find. Of course people transformed things into food, yet those magical meals didn't bring one vitamins or proteins. They just filled one stomach.

Rarely had the muggle authorises seen so much false money flow on the market. It sprouted everywhere. Wizards were desperate so they all went to the muggle world. They sent their children to muggle boarding schools, sure that there at least they would eat a warm meal once a day. Hogwarts was another place where people went to receive a shelter for the night.

Seeing the misery, Hogwarts opened a wing in the castle were people could come and leave for a restricted amount of time. The food had been free at first, yet after seven months of feeding people, they started to sell their food to the people. The money asked wasn't much, yet many people couldn't even afford so much.

The two thieves started to operate during the end of the first year after the Final Battle. They had been called the 'Depression Era Duet' and Aurors and the ministry represents had left in peace because there were more pressing criminals than them. Death Eaters were back then still roaming in England and France.

Apparently they were on their way to London now. They were surely suicidal enough to try to break into Gringrotts. Yet no one even doubted on their success. They had managed after all to steal quite successfully the storage money of Hogwarts.

They knew they didn't really have a future. They knew they were going to die, maybe next week, maybe next month. Maybe in the morning. They never pretended they might be the only exception to the standard, "Crime doesn't pay". But, because they knew their time was limited, they decided to let all hell break loose in the meantime to whoop and holler it up till death do them part. They lived a Fast life. A die-young life. And they wouldn't have traded it for the world.

They were Hermione and Ronald. The new infamous Weasly duo.

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** Please Review!**

Please remember this story is compeltly different form my others fics. I somehow strangely enogh turned totally OCC...


	2. The Beginning of the End

**Author's Note :**

THANK YOU! Ooh ! Thank you for your reviews. I'm going to take Colin's advice and explain the depression. The beginnings explained here: the rest comes in the next chapter.

This chapter is dedicated to Colin, because he's review was so nice! I have never been talented before! Thank you!

**Gonzogirl**: _Of course_ the Barrow gang is going to take place here! You really did think they wouldn't pop up? Oh- three guesses on who the Barrow Gang is going to be (they will start their appearance in the fourth chapter).

**Occeannia:** Updated soon enough?

**Amscary: **Thanks for your review. I liked the quote quite a lot. And:All in good time. Cigars, machine guns, the 'Barrow gang', shooting and non-hookerish cloths are still to come. There's actually a reason why Hermione was dressed up as a hooker. Kinda…

This chapter and the chapter after this one tell what happened to our favourite trio during end of Seventh Year.

Now: ANYONE WITH EXTRA, UNUSUAL INFO ON BONNIE AND CLYDE PLEASE CONTACT ME! I've got just the basic stuff about them. If there is something you'd would like to incorportae to this story, please do.

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_**The beginning of the End**_

It started rather simply.

It was summer and it was warm and sunny outside as well. The sun was shining, tinting Hermione's face and arms in light brown tones, dotting Ron's body with freckles and burning Harry's pale skin. The sky was perfectly blue and the lake was as blue as the sky. The green of the forest was so incredibly bright and reminded one of a clichéd postcard. All the people oiled themselves and were therefore shining in the sun.

Hermione wore skirts and dresses and sleeveless shirts and studied for hours no end in the sun. She lay in the middle of sunny spots, making her friends run after her with litres of cool drinks and planted parasols around her like huge plastic flowers. She didn't stress one bit for her NEWTs, assured to pass them with flying colours. No one doubted about that. She had been, after all, six years in a row the best student in school.

Harry would stay inside or play Quidditch as often as possible. Hermione of course insisted that he'd study at least two hours per day. He did so, wearing T-shirts or being topless, having on ridiculously tight shorts, getting burnt in the sun. He couldn't understand how Hermione managed to stay outside so long without passing out or becoming sleepy. His Quidditch skills had greatly improved, as well as his knowledge about Aurors. Harry was the only one who was regularly updated about the whereabouts of the Order.

Ron couldn't believe how careless his best friends were. He ran after Harry with his books and checked regularly that Hermione had something to drink. Hermione often insisted on him to stay with her, and he did so, often dozing off instead of reading. This is how his face became very freckled, and sometimes, after she had finished reading some book about something, Hermione would pass her time counting the freckles on the nose of her friend. She even sometimes started playing connect-the-dots on his face.

The war was raging around them, yet they didn't feel the repercussions of it in Hogwarts. They had given up the idea of spying on the Order by themselves: the war will bring them bad news soon enough. Now they just lived in the sun, savouring the last weeks of peace they had. They created perfect days, their only trouble being their exams.

The war: they would join it soon as well. They lived the last week of peace before the storm of the battles. School was almost over; their exams as well. So far, everything had been so perfect, and somehow synthetic as well. Their friendship had run deeper than ever before after the deaths of Sirius and of Hagrid, who had kicked the bucket during their Sixth year. It had been a good death for him: he had been stung by some strange creature sent by the Death Eaters to attack Hogwarts. Thanks to him, the creature couldn't lay its eggs. Hagrid had saved them all. He had died a smile on his face, joining his Olympe who had been murdered a year before.

The horrible news and deaths just knitted the trio closer. They became one person, only they had three heads, six pair of arms, three pair of legs, three separate bodies. But their minds were connected, as were their spirits and their love. They never talked about love; not really. It was present, yet they never uttered a word about it. It was more taboo than the deaths of Sirius and Hagrid.

Their lives were oddly happy, flawless, just as if the days were like a VCR stuck on a repeat button. They knew it wouldn't last. Yet they hoped it did. After school was over, they wanted to continue on living a perfect life during the summer. In autumn, everything would change. Harry would begin his Auror training, Hermione would start study to become an Unspeakable, and Ron was starting as an apprentice at Gringrotts to become a curse-breaker, like his elder brother.

Bill had become their newest Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, thus leaving a place free for his brother to take. Ron jumped on the occasion: receiving so quickly a job wasn't easy. Besides it was something that interested him quite a lot. And it would also be useful in war, to know about dark, ancient curses. You never knew what does horrible Death Eaters were up to.

Their summer was planned to be passed at Hermione's place. The two boys had often met Hermione's parents. They were two absolutely lovely people, very shy, very proud of their daughter. They worked very much and were happy to know Hermione had friends that took care of her. They had gladly accepted to let Hermione settle with her friends to their apartment in London and live there for the summer. Her parents were holding a dozens of seminars in France, leaving their flat empty.

They knew about the war. They did never talk about it, yet they were relieved as they learned their daughter was becoming an Unspeakable (Hermione had to start with research work as all the new Unspeakables-in-training; the work wasn't hard, but it was extensive, and took a very long time). No field work for Hermione these upcoming years. Not for Harry either. The only one to receive some concrete action was Ron.

Yet they should have all three known perfectly that it was too good to last.

The first deception started after school: Harry had immediately to take his Auror exams. He got in of course, and started his Auror training straight away. His friends sighed at this, yet they knew he couldn't fight his fate (or at least, he couldn't fight Dumbledore, the ministry and the Aurors). He told them to carry on their summer plans. They promised to do that.

Ron came to London a week after graduation, freckled and laughing. Hermione had installed him in her room, herself sleeping in the tiny, cupboard-sized guest room. Their life started that summer. They had a perfectly synchronized routine: she woke up first, making coffee and whilst she was showering Ron brought fresh bakeries for break-fast. They did something together (going to a museum, shopping or study for their work) and eat outside for lunch. Then they would take a nap, and finally go out in the evening.

Their days were perfect. They longed for nothing more. Something that had always been there between them intensified. They always danced together, bodies entangles, moving together with the music. People didn't flirt with them because they sensed it would be totally useless. This was fine by them: Hermione didn't want a "summer-love". She would have to dump him anyway. Ron was afraid of letting something slip about the wizarding world. They completed each other. They knew it.

They didn't set a foot in the wizarding world. The only contact they had to magic was the owls they sent to their families and to Harry (they also eventually used magic to get rid of the household chores).

Ron adored muggle London. The first day together had been somehow tiring, first visiting the Victoria & Albert museum, then getting acquainted with all the different food types the city contained. They had eaten kebab, pizza, Chinese food, Italian ice-cream and fudge all in one day. They had had the belly ache of their lives the same night.

Suddenly their idyllic little life was over: work began. Ron stayed at the Grangers, living permanently at the Granger's flat. They still didn't dated. Hermione had proposed to Harry to come and live with them, but Harry gently declined the offer. He lived with the Auror which trainee he was: Tonks.

Fall had passed quickly, not leaving much for the three friends to come together. They occasionally passed each others in Diagon Alley. Hermione had lunch each day with Harry, and during the week ends, Ron joined them. She had dinner with her parents and Ron. Harry and Ron had the same curse and charm specialization courses with Moody. Although the hard work and the war drained them of their energy, they started to go out more often during winter.

Christmas had been passed at Grimmauld place with all the Weaslys and the Grangers along with Tonks, Snape and various other people, friends from school and work. The Christmas party itself hadn't been very grand; the economy of the country going badly because of the war.

No one could have ever guessed how the Second War would have influenced the people so badly. It hadn't been only the war itself: Death Eaters didn't operate openly, no massive murder were going on. Yet the Death Eaters managed to make the wizarding world collapse from the inside.

The country was almost living in a state of anarchy: no one trusted the ministry and the Order was too occupied with Voldemort. The wizarding world started to sense the first warning signs of an economical disaster: a depression as great as the one which startled the world during the last century in the mid thirties in the USA.

But anyone thought it was just a phase; that the economical crisis would pass quickly. How wrong they were! But no one could have foreseen the tragic state the wizarding world would have after the war.

Now everyone was living day for day, holding themselves at bay from new things to happen. People created happy memories, things to cling too. Hermione and Ron started to realize that they were each others happy memories, and started to cling to each other even more than before.

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The more reviews i recieve, the quicker I'll update. Ha!


	3. The Final Battle

**Author's Note: **

Whoa! Loooooooooong chappie! Six pages! Don't get too used to it, upcoming chapters are shorter.

THE FINAL BATTLE AGAINST VOLDEMORT!

(All the cool stuff comes in chapter five or so. Until then, more neutral things and explanations what had happened in the wizarding world and stuff…)

**Ginzogirl: **Hello there! New chapter!

** Jessicameansseethelight:** Thanks for your review!

As usual: This in an independent fic; this has nothing to do with my two others fics. NOTHING!

BUT! Those who actually read 'Angelic Layer': This fic contains a couple of cookies and a couple of hints of becoming things in Angelic Layer.

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_**Designation of Doom**_

Instead of beautiful weather and new life, spring brought death and misery. The Death Eaters started finally their killing sprees. The first mass murdering had stared in Diagon Alley. There had been a demonstration against the ministry and Fudge. Suddenly over thirty Death Eaters had streamed in from everywhere, casting the killing curse on everyone who wasn't a 'respectable' pure-blood.

On almost three hundred witches and wizards just a handful survived. The attack had been so brutal, so quick, no one had even time to react. Most people had died with their eyes wide open, wonder and horror written on their faces. That spring day was forever to be remembered as the first day of the 'Death Wave'. In the space of two weeks, fourteen attacks had wiped out lives of dozen thousands of people.

Death Eaters didn't use only wands to kill. They had apparently discovered the joys of the muggle weapons, and had developed a series of Kalashnikovs containing bullets smeared with deadly poisons, that took less than one minute to kill anyone hit by the bullets.

This new techniques confused everyone: Death Eaters weren't supposed to use new techniques: they were cheating. The Order, still in the old pattern of the past war, weren't ready for this and all their old techniques and schemes were useless.

The Death Eaters claimed that many members Order of the Phoenix had dressed up as civilians to try and escape Voldemort's aggression (which was in a way true- they worked undercover, just as the Death Eaters). They used this as their excuse to go around killing whomever they wanted to kill. The Purebloods committed these acts because they had the mentality that they could get away with anything, and because they knew that their side was capable of bullying the weaker rest of the wizarding world, should a rebellion on the Light side have occurred. After a couple days of killing, the brutality became routine, and the fact that hundreds were dying every day was no longer so horrifying to most Members of the Phoenix. The worst maybe was that even the public got used to it. .

The Death Eaters' attacks were irrational. They had just the one goal: kill as much as possible. It was a good way to create confusion, panic and irrational actions. The Order was bound to make at some point a mistake. Severus Snape was in hiding: in the middle of the trio's sixth year, Voldemort had found out about his spying. Ever since, the Order had been quite powerless to do anything.

England was in a state of chaos. People fled, people panicked, people locked themselves in to their houses. Children too young for Hogwarts were sent there, others were taken away. Those who had lived through the first war left for America, Asia or somewhere far, far away. The problem was however, that this time Death Eaters were everywhere. Those who escaped England were often killed in punishment of their cowardice in America. Life was harsh.

March had killed more people than the first six months had killed during the first war. The numbers were alarming. Yet no one could react against it all. The order needed inside information, and quickly so.

Harry had been given intense legimancy lections by Snape, yet Harry couldn't sneak his way to Voldemort's brain without being noticed. The only thing he could was to catch a couple of words of which they tried to make sense.

Sometimes it had been successful: Harry had given them a whole sentence, and in this sentence were information about when and where the attack would happen. This set to an end the 'Death Wave', yet it exhausted Harry to no end. He couldn't continue on his Auror training for days after his mental contortions to get into the puzzling mind of Voldemort.

His friends had stayed with him then, enveloping him in a warm cocoon of secure feelings. He never told them what he saw in Voldemort's mind, but Ron and Hermione didn't care. They were there for him. Comforted by his friend's presence, Harry dared to go more and more in Voldemort's mind. The information he brought was little, yet crucial. Slowly the Order was able to see a pattern immerge from the attacks. Harry brought information that completed the bribes the Order managed to get out from the few Death Eaters they managed to capture (alive).

Meanwhile, Hermione and Ron did more than just live together. Hermione, encouraged by the Weaslys, had implored her parents to move away somewhere safe. They had accepted to do it, but only for their daughter's sake. It had been a teary and tragic departure, to see the Granger's leave. They moved to Holland, where Missis Granger had some relatives living. They insisted always on Hermione coming to them, yet Hermione couldn't leave. She just _couldn't_. The idea had crossed her mind, and she knew that they would understand if she would leave. Yet she simply couldn't. She knew that even if she'd leave, she still would be in London.

Spring went by slowly, bringing in more and more dead folks. The lists of deceased people were growing with each hour passing. Now the Death Eaters just killed the first person they saw, just like that, on a whim. The Order had captured a good twenty Death Eaters, yet they knew there was at least six times more somewhere. Voldemort was also somewhere lurking in England.

After a while, the Order saw the pattern chosen by the Death Eaters: it was simple yet very ingenious. The death Eaters killed in different places in order to confuse everyone. Yet it wasn't the same death eaters operating all the time: The United Kingdom was split in fifty parts, and each part had one Death eater leader. The Death Eaters were placed in strong strategic locations.

Hermione was the one who had the idea of starting to compare the culprit of the Death Eaters to different military strategies used during muggle World War II. They all got extremely scared as they noticed the culprit of the Death eater attack was exactly the same as the Japanese had used in Nan king.

They were circling Hogwarts. All the territories even capable of brining help were destroyed. They concentrated their attacks around the areas near Hogsmade and Hogwarts. They knew that if they managed to take over Hogwarts, the victory of Voldemort was assured.

Finally seeing this, the Order prepared the biggest counter-attack ever made in the History of Magic. The battle seemed to be prepared yet it wasn't as much as people believed it was: the Order counted much on luck and on Harry. If this attack would fail, the Order would be destroyed.

Operation 'Golden Lion' was carried out in three phases: first force the Death eaters to join one single spot, and lurk Voldemort there; phase two was to encircle the Death Eaters in a tight circle, place anti-appartion points all around and mine up the earth with bombs who would explode if exposed to dark magic; phase three: attack of the Order 'Lion' and cleaning of the area so Harry could face Voldemort unscarred (he was going to be accompanied by his two friends, thus received the surname 'Golden'). All three had one secret weapon on them. They had decided to keep them secret until the battle.

Eventually, the Order carried on the plan. It was over-all a success, for each fallen member of the Order, three Death Eaters had died. Yet there had been pointless losses. The first mistake had been to start the operation too early. A fifth of the Death Eaters were missing as the operation begun. The second error had been to mine the place with bombs. The bombs should have been charmed just to explode under the pressure the contact of Death Eaters. The third mistake had been to underestimate the Death Eaters protections. Another mistake had been for the Order of taking only experienced Aurors with them. They had plenty of perfectly capable members they had refused to take with them. It was good of course in the way that young people didn't die; yet more people could have made the escape of dozens of Death eaters impossible.

The 'Golden Trio' had been surrounded by Aurors and other people with strong powers. This had prevented them to be directly hit by any spell. It had worked well until they walked directly into a trap that maimed Hermione's arm so badly it almost fell off. She closed her eyes and continued on walking, pretending it wasn't anything bad. In the heart of action no one really realized how badly she was hurt. A Death Eater had used a thin metal wire lasso to try decapitating Harry, yet Hermione's arm got strangled by it instead. Her arm was crushed, and only her skin held her arm to her body.

Ron got shot in the face, yet he managed to dodge somehow the shot by bending backwards, getting only brushed by the bullet. The poison however started to creep it way into his body, and his only chance of survival was to burn the wound with a fire that ate up a part of his face. There would be a scar forever in his face.

They presented a quite queer picture when they faced Voldemort and his closest Death Eaters. Harry robes slightly burnt, yet still totally healthy and unscarred. Hermione, her hair a halo around her head, her arm hanging limply at her side, tears of pain in her eyes, a wand in each hand, an odd lump on her chest. Ron had his face on fire, his hair burnt partly away, a gun his left hand, a wand in the other. Around his neck, he wore a thick collar. That collar was a shield that protected from old curses (he had nicked it from his work).

Everything went very quickly. Lucius Malfoy was shot in his hands by Ron, Hermione knocked out Bellatrix (and quite surly decapitated her) by levitating blocks of stones on her head. Dolohov received a cheering Charm, a stunning spell and an amnesia spell all at once, letting him fall down on the floor, giggling helplessly whilst watching the scene around him with empty eyes. Now there was still three Death Eaters and Voldemort to go.

Hermione had the incapacity of killing anyone, yet it wasn't a problem for Ron. He cast a complicated curse on Rudolf, which would kill him. Each gasp of air he took tightened the spell around his ribcage; it was a manner of minutes before he fell on the ground, chocking. Harry had taken out his surprise-secret weapon and pierced Lucius Malfoy's chest with it and had made Macnair fall on his knees. It was Godric Gryffindor's sword.

So far Voldemort had done very little. There still was a Death eater next to him, wearing the infamous white mask, so no one knew who it was. After have killed, maimed and defeated the Death eaters in the room, they walked towards the little throne Voldemort was sitting on. They walked carefully, eyes darting around the room, waiting for a surprise attack.

There was no extra attack- but there was a surprise. The Death Eater next to Voldemort was no actual Death Eater. It was Dumbledore. Hogwarts Headmaster. He was the one standing next to Voldemort, his face cold and impassive, his eyes filled with tears and a slightly sad smile on his face.

It was quite a shock. Hermione was the one who reacted first. She cast a stunning spell whilst yelling apologies. Voldemort took this opportunity to cast the killing on Harry. Ron pushed Harry away, and dodged the deadly spell in time. Meanwhile, Hermione was bracing herself and trying to fix her broken arm. She noticed at the last moment Mcnair's killing curse. The turned around to face him, and received the spell right in her chest.

She fell motionless on the floor; Ron killed cold-bloodily Mcnair with the same curse that had chocked Rudolf Lestrange. Harry, not quite believing what he saw, dropped his sword on the ground.

Then the oddest of things happened. Ron yelled and screamed at Hermione's motionless body. Harry just stared at Hermione with his eyes blank. Then, at the precise moment he understood what had happened, his brain shattered and flooded his and Voldemort's mind with the memories of Hermione.

Voldemort couldn't comprehend what was happening. The love and friendship Harry felt towards Hermione burnt Voldemort's brain. Nothing could stop it. The more Ron screamed, the more the feelings intensified, burning Voldemort from the inside. He screamed and whined, trying to get off Harry from his brain. He tried blocking Harry out, but he couldn't. The pain was unbearable for both of them. Slowly, Voldemort started to transform. Everything that had been evil burnt from the inside. Voldemort's ugly, pointy, white face turned rounder and fuller, more handsome. The eyes turned cooler and calmer, hair started to grow at a tremendous rate. Voldemort was becoming Tom Riddle again.

Tom Riddle accepted the feelings inside of himself, soaking them in. Harry grew weaker by moments passing. Finally his eyes turned white, and he bucked backwards, falling on the floor, shrinking rapidly. Harry was becoming younger and younger. Tom Riddle ate up Harry's life.

Under Ron's surprised eyes, Hermione sat slowly up, grimacing and crying in pain. She took her wand and pointed it at their teacher, muttering the counter curse. Dumbledore was freed some the spell.

Dumbledore walked towards Tom Riddle, who was now looking like a handsome middle-aged man. The only one to notice what was going on was Dumbledore and the few Death Eaters still alive. Tom Riddle turned from a middle-aged man into a late teenager, from a late-teenager to an old child, from an old child to a baby and from a baby to nothing. As finally Dumbledore bent down to se what had happened to Voldemort, there was nothing more than a foetus. Harry had disappeared as well.

Ron helped Hermione slowly up from the floor. He could barely believe what he saw. Hermione had received a death curse right on her chest and she still lived! He slightly wondered if she was going to become 'Hermione: The-Girl-Who-Lived'. Hermione was crying whilst walking up, and Ron jumped in surprise as he saw the odd lump that had been on Hermione's chest fall on the floor: it was Crookshanks. Her faithful cat had been her weapon; he had been her shield.

They held each other, oblivious to anything else and there, they cried. They cried and cried and cried, tears streaming down their eyes, wetting their faces. It was all over. They stood there, surrounded by dead bodies of Death eaters and Dumbledore holding the cloths that had been Harry's and Voldemort's.

They realized that Harry was dead. Their cries broke the taboo of not talking about the dead. They didn't say a word, just cried. And with the abolition of taboos, they lips met, touching for the first time. They kissed. Where death had taken from them friendship, love had taken place.

They were both alone now. The trio was now a duet. And they knew they couldn't ever leave each other. They became one, a person, and whilst they kissed, their bodies melt into one form, and it was impossible to say where he began and she stopped.


	4. Harry, Our Harry

**Author's Note :**

Whoa ! Finally some dialogue! I was afraid poor Ron and Hermione would have to use pantomimes to get understood… And now some fluffiness and friendship ahoy!

I just realized how saaaaaaaaad last chapter was.

Short Chappie! The other one was long enough!

The whole part Hermione explains about Harry is weird I know. But one friend told me that when one of our common friend died in an car accident, SO DON'T BITCH ABOUT IT. Over.

On with the story!

**Amscary:** OOoee! Adorable! You are right; the Barrow gang (rebaptised the 'Burrow Gang') would be composed out of several persons we all know. No;- Fleur will not be there; but yes, an older Weasly member is going to be there with his spouse.

Rudolph is Rodolphus; I got those named a bit confused. (Personally I thought it was weird that a villain had the same name as the reindeer that saved Christmas, but then I just thought "Haha! The irony!"). You are truly adorable. Thank you for your nice reviews.

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**Chapter Four:** Harry.

After the final battle, Hermione and Ron were brought to Saint-Mungos, where Hermione's arm was nursed back to healthy. It hadn't lasted long to fix the problem; her arm was in such a terrible condition they dissolved her bones and made her drink skele-grow. Hermione stayed three full days in hospital before leaving. Ron was brought into an intensive operation room where he was checked against all interior damage. He would be forced to drink a certain potion for the rest of his life: the potion in the bullet had have time to get into his system.

A week after the battle, they moved back into muggle London, enjoying the first summer days. They didn't need to back to work for a month; they were officially on convalescent vacation. Little did anyone know that it was the last time those two were going be on the right side of the law.

Their life in muggle London was odd. It felt like their lives had been hit by an enormous wave and everything was supposed to be destroyed yet everything was in place. Hermione didn't sleep in the guest-room anymore, but shared her ex-bed with Ron. They would talk for hours each night about Harry, between kisses scattered on their faces. They talked about Sirius and Hagrid, about the war, about the Order, about everything they couldn't talk about with Harry. Through his death, Harry brought back those who they lost in their lives.

They started to walk through London again, going to museums and eating outside. They kissed now as well, and talked as much as possible about Harry. It wasn't unusual to see them cry and laugh and kiss all at the same time. Hermione's skin was brown again, and Ron's face was freckled, making the scar that traversed his face even more seen. Their life was normal, until the point they noticed with horror that they were almost penniless.

It had been a rather queer situation as they noticed they were without money. Hermione had been hungry and they had gone to Salisbury's supermarket to get her a snack. She was so hungry she had opened the chocolate bar she wanted to buy straight away and started to munch on it. People did that sometimes; they were going to pay the munched product anyways. It was then with stupor they had no change on them. Hermione had eaten up the rest of the chocolate bar nonetheless. Giggling and blushing madly, they had run away from the shop. It was only later, when they realized they were broke for good they started to panic.

They had spent all their money. Both Hermione and Ron had made the very serious and solemn promise to their parents that they would not need their financial support. The only thing the parents paid for was the rent of the flat. So it was with horror they noticed they were truly without money. Everything was almost gone; they had enough to eat for three days, no more.

If it had been post-War time, they could have lived on their money for two months or so. But because everything started to get so expensive, their money was worth nothing. The muggle money on Hermione's account wasn't nearly enough. She had changed it all to galleons before the inflation. Now their galleons were worth as good as nothing.

Hermione started to sell some items from their household, like the dishwasher and microwave oven. First Ron didn't notice it, but after she had sold TV-set and VCR, he understood what was going on. They carefully chose what they could afford to sell and lived very carefully with the money.

But they didn't have it as difficult as the rest of Ron's family. Finally Ron send his share of money to his family and they lived on nicked food or on money they received for doing odd-jobs like baby-sitting and lawn mowing grass. In their attempt to have money they even started to sell certain potions ingredients that were usuable as drugs in the muggle underground world.

Yet they weren't used to such things and as finally the Twins had to close their shop, they gave them the tip of selling drugs. Ron and Hermione had to finally admit it: they couldn't continue on like this.

They watched each other in the eyes and sighed deeply. Now was the end of their post-war peace Harry gave them. It was time to go back to work.

Yet their first day at work was interrupted around mid-day by various members of the Order picking up Hermione at the office she was working in for the Unspeakables. Ron was waiting for her at Gringrotts, eyes questioning her. They sat down next to each other, hands entangled, and eyes wide. A goblin came to them and tossed them a golden key.

Harry's vault. It was theirs. Hermione smiled to them, took the key whilst Ron braided some of her hair into a tiny, slim plait. He cut it off, and Hermione passed the key through it, making a necklace out of it. Hermione passed the key around Ron's neck and kissed his cheek.

No parole had been exchanged during this time. They walked out hand in hand after have signed a paper attesting they took over the responsibility of Harry's money. Hermione quietly had asked if they could go and Harry's- no wait, _their_ new vault. They were stunned as they saw the fortune in front of their eyes.

Money was there in small mountains; their momentary money problems forgotten; they explored all they saw. Hermione and Ron ignored the glimmering coins and sat down in a corner, searching for something else than just anonymous money. It was Hermione who found it: a jewel bow no bigger than a CD-case. They opened it, and found necklaces and bracelets and rings thrown carelessly in the box. Most of them were plain, the polish melted off and dirty, yet you still could feel the warm feelings they had lived. They found his parents engagement rings, and on a silent accord, they passed a finger each around their left ring finger. They had Harry with them now.

"- Hermione."

"-Mm?"

"- You are a Know-It-All. Please, tell me, do you think he is ever going to disappear?"

"- We can go but Harry would never leave. Too many years are locked up in our memories. The times we will feel him drift apart form us, one of us will softly say: I remember his mind."

Ron had continued to cram through the box and fished out a tiny little golden star attached to an old, worn leather band. He clasped it around Hermione's neck. She was the one who deserved it; her head would have been ripped off if her arm couldn't have stopped the wire lasso from taking off her head.

Ron continued to root in the money aroudn them and found te diaries, the babybook and messages that had been carefully hidden in a tiny toybox. The notebooks were yellowed and smelled of paper and metal. They were his parents' diaries from school and Lilies memories of after their marriage and of her pregnancy. Hermione had been destroyed as she had found them; there was proof of the exsistence of Harry's parents, yet he had never been able to read them. It was unfair and wrong! Harry was the one supposed to find all this; not them.

But... Harry was no more. Harry was dead. _What were they to do?_

"-Do you think people would ever know him like we did?"

"- No. But it's good that way. He liked his privacy."

There was a deep moment of silence. They felt sadness and loss. Harry's phantom was just there, somewhere between them, wavering, demanding not to be forgotten. It would have been easier maybe if Harry had died. To see his cold, lifeless body would have made it real. But he disappeared. He could have as well disaparate or go in hiding.

"- We can't even bury him."

" Ron; let's bury him with his parents. Let's do the same thing as the Potters did; let's write down Harry as the person _we_ knew. Not the Boy-Who-Lived; no, just our plain Harry. Let's write him down on paper and bury him with his parents. So they would know all what they missed out. I'm sure they would want to know."

"- You would write them. You can put people on paper."

Ron took the star tinkle and passed it around Hermione's neck and fastened with a steady knot. It was her responsibility to write Harry down; not Harry the hero. Harry their friend, the one yelling and snapping at them, the Quidditch fanatic candy eating lazy arse that never did any studying if Hermione didn't threaten him. Harry who had used more than once his invisibility cloak to gave a peek in the girl's bathroom (he was finally caught by Lavender Brown at the end of sixth year). _Their_ Harry.

Hermione climbed her way to Ron's lap and installed herself between his long legs, her back against her chest. She played with the necklace. They smiled and closed their eyes, and they just felt Harry there. Harry lingered somewhere around them like the taste of a peppermint candy that had melted in your mouth. There, surrounded by gold, was the last time they cried Harry's disappearance.

Two and a half years later, when reporters asked them about their lives, about the times after Harry's death, they always smiled and told them it was the best time of their lives. Because they were young and they were in love.

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